I'm going to be borrowing a better camera soon, but in the meantime I'm just using my little digital camera.

I used to take pictures during the day to take advantage of sunlight through the windows, but now that I'm working that's not an option at the moment. Instead I turn on all four lights in my room, to try to simulate 3-point lighting. The pics still come out a little on the blurry side and a tad dark, but I think that's better than the way the flash washes everything out. At least you can see a lot of detail with the flash, however.

Two examples:
I also need some practice with Photoshop, cause playing around with auto-correct or auto-contrast just seems to make them worse...

Hey GFELube I know what you mean. The little digital cameras are really limited as to what they can do. However, with photoshop your going to want to get the best photos or you will be sitting on one photo retouching it for hours. I was over at a buddies house where he has his photo studio set up and he was showing me how he uses his laptop to see the bigger image and do some of the corrections before he takes a shot with his Digital SLR. It's a pretty cool set up and doesn't require a lot. Several small spot lights and along with some background paper and he doesn't need to use a flash!! He just directs the spots to give the lighting effect he wants.

Not even on weekends?

GFE, keep trying with both approaches, and then pick what you think are the best of each. I use a point-and-shoot too, and normally, I don't use the flash, but that's because my place has a bunch of big windows. Flash will "wash out" things sometimes, but it seems to be kinder to plush than silicone; and depending on the angle, flash or sunshine will help play down a TB's seams.
Even the relative lack of sharpness point-and-shoots have isn't so bad when the subject is already kinda "soft".

Based on your examples so far, I think using the flash is helping Cymona look good.

Thanks Zang & Dollarhyde

Here's what I meant about the non-flash contrast-corrected pics looking worse (in my opinion):


Although the corrected (right) side looks brighter, it also looks grainier to me, whereas the "softer" original look seems to hide that pixelated effect.

Anyway, I hope to have something better to use by this weekend. I also don't get a lot of time or privacy on the weekend to use the natural sunlight any more, but maybe I should splurge and take my special lady to a hotel room nearby Woohoo, mirrors on the ceiling!

GFE, you probably have a much better camera to use by now, but I'll leave this here anyway in case someone else has this problem

First off, the first photo with the flash is truly lovely. I see the dilemma, though. . . In my opinion the flash shows much more detail and clarity, but makes her look more harsh because you lose any shadows. I'm a nightowl, and I face the same problem with my photographs. Granted, I mostly do still life and portraits of real people (not a doll owner yet), and usually shoot analog point-and-shoots. Anyway, I have a deep hatred for using bright flashes because they take away shadows and make colors look unnatural. What worked for me was to head to the local thrift store and pick up a few floor lamps- ones with adjustable necks work best. I bought some fluorescent bulbs for them, and plugged them all into a power strip. This allowed me to play with each light source and aim it at my subject from whichever direction I wanted until I reached the level of shadow and light that I liked. If you're short on space, I'm sure desk lamps would work well too. Basically, it's a cheap, easy, and impermanent version of the mini-studio Dollarhyde's friend has, with the added benefit of being easier to use in combination with a cheaper camera. As much as I would love to set up such a studio, I can't justify spending the money when I can get an adequate result (for my needs) from my ghetto version ;D I've taken many beautiful photographs this way, and found my only issue to be that real people hate the amount of light I aim at their eyes. Luckily, you won't have this problem

If you intend to purchase an SLR, I recommend going all the way and getting photographic spotlights, because the floor lamp approach will only weigh you down at that point.

Happy shooting!

Harlequin girl, I agree and shadows are so important to set the mood of the photo.
I just use a couple of floor lamps like this one with a couple of fluorescent bulbs...

I also use a power strip just like you mentioned to be able to locate it anywhere as required to light the scene.
Here's a pic I took at night with just one floor lamp positioned just off camera to the left...


I'm using a Canon SD750 point and shoot camera.